Supreme Court allows withdrawal of KTR’s petition in Formula-E race case

The bench, consisting of Justices Bela M Trivedi and PB Varale, declined to intervene in the orders passed by the High Court, but allowed withdrawal of the petition on the request of the senior counsel representing KT Rama Rao

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the withdrawal of a Special Leave Petition filed by BRS working president KT Rama Rao against the Telangana High Court order that refused to quash a First Information Report (FIR) against him over the Formula E race case.

The bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Prasanna B Varale said it was not inclined to interfere with the High Court order, following which Rama Rao’s counsel withdrew the appeal. The matter was dismissed as withdrawn.

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Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared before the Apex court on behalf of the State government, while senior advocate Siddartha Dave represented Rama Rao. During the hearing, Dave appealed to allow him to withdraw the case with liberty to appear before the court later, following which the court dismissed the petition as withdrawn. This hearing follows after a Special Leave Petition was filed by the BRS working president after the Telangana High Court dismissed his quash petition on January 7, which sought to challenge the ACB’s case.

Speaking to mediapersons in Hyderabad, BRS general secretary and legal cell in-charge Soma Bharat Kumar explained that Rama Rao had never opposed the investigation into the Formula-E case. He said the latter had approached the courts to exercise his right as the citizen of the nation.

“The legislator never refused to appear before the authorities for investigation into the case. He appeared before the ACB officials twice on January 7 and 9. While the special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court on January 7, he asked the counsel to withdraw the petition after appearing before the ACB on January 9. The same was submitted to the court which allowed us to withdraw the case,” he said.

He also found fault with media reports spreading false information that the Supreme Court dismissed the petition entirely and allowed the officials to arrest him.

“Rama Rao reserves the right to approach the court in future,” he asserted.